Pastoral Highlights

PASTORAL PRIORITIES FOR THE ACADEMIC YEAR:

• To ensure that every student is well known and cared for, ‘everyone matters’. • To promote a sense of community across the entire school, where kindness and consideration for others are central to our ethos. • To continue to develop our well-being agenda, supporting students with challenges they face whilst also recognising and celebrating their strengths and successes.

Pastoral Highlights

Promoting positive mental health remained at the heart of the pastoral team’s work as, for the first time in almost two years, we were able to bring our school community back together. In-person assemblies became a particularly important way of conveying key messages to students to support their mental health and well-being. Connecting with others was at the centre of our messaging, with topics ranging from being brave, not perfect, and the importance of sleep to the power of resilience and flexibility. The appointment of a Pastoral Liaison Manager at the start of the Summer Term has allowed the Pastoral Team to further enhance strategies to support our students’ mental health and well-being.

A WEEK OF WELL-BEING

Feel-Good Week was packed with variety and choice; there needed to be something for everyone. We celebrate our students’ wide range of interests, passions and aspirations; we want to support them in fulfilling their unique ambitions. Our week included form time carousels where year groups could mix up and try a completely new activity. Workshops included sessions in art, and dance, including contemporary and Latin, yoga and Qi Gong. Students had the opportunity to play traditional games such as sack-racing, to ‘walk and talk’ around the beautiful grounds with our peer mentors, to be still and reflect whilst colouring in and to enjoy scenes from feel-good movies. At the end of each day, the community received the light-hearted digital Afternoon Tea Feel Good Newsletter, which included pictures, positive quotes, recipes, uplifting music recommended by the staff and students, news stories, as well as links to books, podcasts, websites and further information on some of the activities of the day.

Our popular themed weeks continued to be embedded in the calendar and spotlighted the promotion of positive mental health. Kindness Week and Feel-Good Weeks challenged issues of low self-esteem, comparisons with others and perfectionism offering a wide variety of workshops and activities. ‘One Kind Word’, was the theme for Anti-Bullying Week, encouraging students to show kindness to others and opened discussions on kindness to ourselves. Our Upper School Mental Health Committee launched a fantastic podcast about mental health and the role students have in being kind to each other.

OTHER ACTIVITIES INCLUDED:

Year 11 had a workshop from the Self Esteem Team about preparing and protecting our mental health during the exam period. Mental health campaigner Natasha Devon spoke to Year 8 and their parents on the role of a friend, building a healthy community and understanding when adult support is needed.

The Daniel Spargo-Mabbs Foundation presented their production of “I Love You Mum, I Promise I Won’t Die”. This powerful piece of ‘Theatre In Education’ allowed students to explore challenging social situations developing knowledge, empathy and understanding surrounding the issues of drugs.

Talks delivered by the RAP project continued to be a very important element of our well-being work; these included: • ‘Altered, Airbrushed and Unrealistic’, - addressing body image issues and how 24/7 access to social media, advertising & the internet affects self-esteem. • Everyone’s Invited - Now What? - an empowering presentation providing personal safety advice on how alcohol and drugs interfere with consent. It defined the laws on sexual offences and the necessity of practicing mutual respect and mutual consent.

Online parental talks continued to be a real strength of this year’s work, with the programme designed to meet the needs of our parents. Areas covered included encouraging healthy work habits, the importance of sleep, dealing with transitions and navigating social interactions. To support this series of in-house events, parents also have the opportunity to draw on a whole array of materials and webinars offered by ‘Tooled-Up’ education.

Pastoral Highlights

PEER MENTORS

One of the first assemblies of the year focussed on rebuilding connections across the School and the role Sixth Form students play in promoting positive relationships. The work of our Peer Mentors has been impressive, and they have forged strong connections with students across all year groups. A brunch was held to welcome the new Year 7 students, and individual support was offered to Middle School and Upper School students in our popular ‘Tea and chat’ and ‘Walk and Talk’ sessions. During the exam season, ‘Ask the Peer Mentor’ sessions were created to give advice and share good practices to help support younger students. There were also successful connections built with the Junior School, with Peer Mentors being available in the Medical Centre to speak to Junior School students. A rota has also been set up with Peer Mentors visiting students from Years 3 to 6 to answer their questions. A Safer Internet Day form time activity designed by the Year 9 Internet Safety Reps on the topic of ‘Cool to be Unkind?’ considered online relationships, particularly online games, and how to protect ourselves and others from harmful interactions.

HEALTHY LIVING

All sections of the School benefitted from practical presentations by Chartwells (some in Ready, Steady, Cook style!) building an awareness of how to cook for oneself creating balanced healthy meals in a short timeframe. Focus was also placed on eating a healthy breakfast and how eating well supports mental and physical health.

SPORTS

The PE Department worked closely with the whole school to promote positive mental health and resilience through a programme of mindfulness and physical activities activities. Mental Health & Well-being Week featured ‘Mindful Moments’ where tutors introduced students to different mindfulness techniques each morning. This provided students with various strategies to use in times of need. FeelGood Week included a range of physical activity opportunities, including yoga, Latin dancing and old-fashioned sack races. A Middle School PE Day was also held at the end of the Autumn Term. All students were given the opportunity to engage in fun physical activities, which were linked with ongoing work in PSHE and form time on the importance of embedding physical activity into everyday life.

EQUALITY, DIVERSITY, AND INCLUSION

Our assemblies were used as a starting point to encourage discussions around equality, diversity and inclusivity. Topics included an examination of the original film “West Side Story” and the challenges the cast felt regarding discrimination against Latin actors and inappropriate casting choices, and the comparison with the second adaptation and the attempts to right the wrongs of the first movie by casting accurately. Another assembly focussed on the life of Sidney Poitier and his impact on the film industry as a black actor, and his contributions to the Civil Rights Movement. As part of Pride Month, an assembly was held to examine the current focus of the event and trace the history of Pride from the Stonewall Riots; this was supported by a discussion by the Year 11 Mental Health Society in their excellent podcast. Assemblies and form time activities led by Feminist Society allowed all students to assess the importance of equality in a diverse community and demonstrate ways to promote it.

Societies and departments have also worked hard this year to promote respect and celebrate differences and similarities within our school community. LGBTQI+ ran several very successful events during Pride Month, and the History Society organised talks and activities during Black History Month. Our Afro-Caribbean Society also led numerous events across Black History Month, including a Senior Societies talk, assemblies to students in both Senior and Junior Schools, and various lunchtime options.

TRIPS

The return of residential trips for Years 7, 8 and 9 resulted in the improvement and maturity of students’ relationships with peers and growing independence as they spent time away from home (for some, this was their first opportunity to do so ever, and for most, it was their first opportunity to stay away from home following the pandemic).